‘Mother, Mother’ Made With a Little Help From Friends

Marlon Daniel often cried between scenes.

It’s not because he has AIDS. Not because of the recurring weakness, the rapid weight loss, the uncontrollable rash on his face or even the possibility of death. It’s because of the emotional realism.

Daniel was one of nearly 200 people, including actresses Piper Laurie, Polly Bergen and Bess Armstrong, who volunteered to make “Mother, Mother,” a 30-minute dramatic short film about a young man with AIDS and his battle to win his mother’s acceptance.

Instead of the $1 million that it would have taken to make the film, volunteers completed the drama with only a $50,000 grant (from John Hancock Insurance Co. Financial Services). Donations from various companies took care of everything from the 35-millimeter cameras to trucks to catering service.

The short movie, which completed filming last week, is scheduled to be released later this year for a theatrical run in which all proceeds would be for the AIDS Project Los Angeles as well as other AIDS organizations.

“It’s inspiring to see so many people help,” said Laurie, who joined the project in June. “Even these big burly cameramen. You would never suspect their sensitivity. I had been wanting to do something like this for a long time. I wanted to do this even before I read the script.”

Laurie plays a mother whose son dies of AIDS at the start of the movie. His lover finds that he too has AIDS and confronts his mother (Bergen) with his homosexuality. But Bergen has long refused to accept her son’s sexuality, and shuns him. Laurie tries to mend their relationship.

For Daniel, one of three actors with AIDS on the project, “Mother” mirrors his life. So he wanted to be in it.

“It’s my life. It’s exactly what happened with my mom and me. I found out two years ago that I had AIDS. My mom never talked to me in that time until this July. Now we’ve become close and I’ve almost been reborn,” says Daniel, who played several roles in the film and worked as a clerk in Los Angeles before being diagnosed.

“It’s so real I have to stop and cry a lot. People have got to understand that people with AIDS are human. We need love. It’s OK to talk to us. It’s OK to touch us. It’s important to hug us,” he said.

Director Micki Dickoff first envisioned the idea for “Mother, Mother” after finishing her award-winning AIDS documentary, “Too Little Too Late,” which was aired on KCET Channel 28 last year.

“I wanted to make a drama about AIDS, one that would cover the human side of AIDS, not the statistical side. Drama reaches more people. Documentaries, people don’t want to watch--they’re tired, they want to be entertained,” said Dickoff, a professor of film at Emerson College in Boston.

Dickoff came to California in April, and teamed up with producer-writer Judy Miller, who had gone to college with Dickoff. Miller agreed to produce the drama, and later recruited writer Ian Praiser, who has written episodes of “Taxi” and “Bosom Buddies.”

“That’s when Piper Laurie and Polly Bergen joined up, and then we got Bess Armstrong and John Dye,” said Dickoff. “In my 15 years of making documentaries, I know that film can change people’s views. I wanted that to happen with this, so I wanted people that really cared. And these people who worked on this really do.”

Executive director Michael Alden says he found companies to be “surprisingly helpful” in making the film.

“I usually work in post production, but when Micki asked me to help, I said, ‘No problem.’ Problem was I didn’t know what I was asking these companies for. I would say: ‘I need these trucks and this and that,’ and the companies would say: ‘You got to be kidding.’ Then I would say: ‘No, and I need it next week.’

“But these companies did it. It’s hard to believe now, but they did,” he said.

The donators, however, did have one proviso: Do not identify us as donors. And that was OK with Alden: “They want to do the best that they can do. They can make the donation, and I feel grateful. Why should they have to waste a lot of energy defending themselves for helping us? I totally understand.”

Still, Alden does not expect the film to create any controversy.

“This is a movie about love. This movie has AIDS as a background, but it could be about any break in relationship between a parent and child,” he says. “We are talking unconditional love. The controversy should be about conditional love--it only hurts people.”